


James Sirius Potter and the Ghosts That Were Not Ghosts

by punkrockbadger



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Gen, M/M, POC Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-11
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-24 22:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2598533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkrockbadger/pseuds/punkrockbadger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James Sirius Potter has spent his entire life avoiding attention, which is quite a feat, considering he's the son of Harry Potter, who everyone knows as The Boy Who Lived, and Ginny Weasley, one of the most acclaimed Quidditch players of the century. However, when he's thrust into the spotlight by a disaster, he discovers that he may not be too bad at playing the hero after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jay [1]

**Author's Note:**

  * For [displayheartcode](https://archiveofourown.org/users/displayheartcode/gifts), [Emmar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmar/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay swallowed hard before looking around the dormitory, which was adorned with posters bearing lions in various poses, making it obvious where he was. Incidentally, this dormitory seemed nearly exactly like the one he occasionally camped out in with his cousins in his own time, so apparently the Gryffindor boys dormitories did not change all too often. "We're in deep crap, gentlemen."

The train left King’s Cross with its usual fanfare, and Jay Potter, newly seventeen, waved to his parents from the same compartment he had ridden in the last six times he set foot on this train. This, of course, was his seventh, and last, train ride on the Hogwarts Express, and he intended to make the most of it. There was a book in the ratty old red and blue backpack he’s had since primary school with his name written on it waiting for him, along with a few treats he’d snuck from his siblings’ general stockpile, but he wasn’t telling on that count.

Lily would be the one to notice that he’d taken more than his share, if either of them did, because Al wasn’t the type to keep track of his things too well, let alone anything that might be shared. And they were both off with their friends at the moment, anyhow. Lily was probably getting a head start on making friends (or enemies) of her fellow first years, Hugo in tow as her second for any possible duels, and Al was probably snogging Cory Malfoy (if not worse) in a bathroom while Rose kept up the pretense that she and Malfoy were doing their assigned rounds of the train.

Jay shifted in his seat, the Head Boy badge he’d been so proud of all summer shining as it caught the sunlight filtering through the window, and dug through his bag for the book he kept untouched since his birthday just for this ride. His father had gotten him  _Charms of Defence and Deterrence_  as a birthday present, telling him it would be a fun read, and he hoped there was some truth in the matter, at least.

But before he could open the book, the train screeched to a halt, tipping over suddenly, and the impact threw him sideways into the window.

He heard only a ghastly scream from across the hall before the world faded to black.

* * *

"Good Lord, Jim, we thought you’d never wake." A voice said, from right by his ear, and Jay groaned, ignoring the pounding in his head as he slowly sat up. "Mate, why’ve you got a 'Puff uniform on? You leaving us for that lot?"

"What?" Jay murmured sleepily, rubbing at his eyes before slowly forcing them open.

"Merlin’s beard." The same voice whispered, and he turned his head just a fraction to the right to stare into wide gray ones. "You’re not even James Potter, are you?"

"I am, though." Jay frowned, looking around the room to see a scrawny boy next to a much taller one, wearing a familiar patched up cardigan.

And then it struck him.

He certainly was James Potter, yes, but definitely not the one they were looking for.

"You're Sirius Black, aren't you?" Jay swallowed hard before looking around the dormitory, which was adorned with posters bearing lions in various poses, making it obvious where he was. Incidentally, this dormitory seemed nearly exactly like the one he occasionally camped out in with his cousins in his own time, so apparently the Gryffindor boys dormitories did not change all too often. "We're in deep crap, gentlemen."

"Deep crap indeed." Remus Lupin, who Jay only knew from Teddy's imitations of him, frowned in confusion. "So, who are you, if you're not Prongs?"

"Prongs 2.0, I suppose." Jay offered a shadow of a smile. "There was an accident. I have no idea where your Prongs is now, but hopefully he's where I was."

"Hopefully." The blond boy spoke up again, nervously fidgeting, and Jay cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders before getting out of bed, immediately discarding his Hufflepuff tie and sweater before taking the offered trunk key from Sirius. He grabbed a sweater and spare tie from the jumbled mess within, resolving to organize it properly at the first opportunity, and pulled them on as quickly as possible to avoid any further mishaps. It wouldn't do to get caught wandering around in a Hufflepuff uniform, especially when pretending to be the most devoted Gryffindor until Jay's father came along, and he was thankful the clothes fit, although his grandfather was a little bit wider in the shoulders than him. Probably from Quidditch, he mused, which Jay wasn't all too bad at, but definitely not on par with the rest of his family. "Right. Any important bits you need to tell me about him?"

"Well, for one, there's this bird he likes--" Sirius began, but was cut off by the door opening, revealing a short girl with familiar eyes, although he was used to seeing them on faces much more similar to his own, standing in the doorway. "And that would be her, just on time."

"James? Oh, there you are." Lily Evans sighed in relief as Jay stammered his way through an apology, trying to decide whether locking himself in the bathroom was a viable option or not as she approached him. "The boys said you'd gotten hurt and, well..."

"I'm fine. Excellent. Ten out of ten. Great." Jay grinned. "No need to worry about me. Nope."

"He's  _perfect_." Sirius whispered to Remus, shaking his head. "Better Prongs than Prongs is."

"We've got Charms in a few minutes, but if you're not feeling well enough to come, I'll hold off Flitwick." Lily frowned, looking over him cautiously, and Jay kept his distance, knowing that he could pass for the original James Potter as long as he kept enough distance between himself and everyone else. His eyes were brown, which was close enough to hazel, and he'd inherited his grandfather's skin tone, so from far away, only those looking for a difference would find one. After a few seconds, she turned her back on him, going back down the stairs, and Jay exhaled loudly, going back to sit on what would be his bed for the foreseeable future.

"Well, Evans is pissed at you." Sirius offered helpfully, patting Jay on the shoulder, as Peter ran to shut the door. "That's a lot like normal."

"Yeah." Jay scrunched up his nose in a decent approximation of Lily's usual expression of frustration, which only caused Remus' frown to deepen. "Bother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter, we find out where our dear James Potter's gotten to and why he ended up there.


	2. James [1]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Yeah, I'm alright." James frowned, nodding slowly. "Hey, quick question. What's today's date?"
> 
> "September first." The boy began cautiously, grabbing the girl's hand to drag her a little ways away from him.
> 
> "The year?" James shuffled his feet awkwardly, hoping he didn't look as nervous as he felt.
> 
> "2020." The boy said, frowning deeply, and James turned around, found a bush, and threw up his breakfast.

To say James Potter was not fond of Severus Snape would be putting it extremely lightly.

James stirred his cauldron almost violently as Slughorn went on and on about some sort of adverse effect that the potion they were brewing could have, shooting the occasional glare at the smirking Slytherin on the other side of the room. He was sure Snape had grabbed a little extra of the last ingredient necessary to make the potion just to be sure that James wouldn't have any and fail the day as a result, but Slughorn would be impossible to sway away from his beloved Slytherins. He'd likely accuse James of lying and send him over to McGonagall, and although it would much more fun than sitting through Potions, he didn't want to risk ending up in her office for the seventh time this week.

In his anger, James, who had never been one for laboratory safety to begin with, accidentally bumped up the flame just a little too high when he went to add the Fluxweed. Within seconds, the potion turned a disturbing shade of green and boiled over, the resulting slime surging up to cover James in a viscous, luridly green substance. 

"Err, looks as if our Mr. Potter disregarded the instructions on turning the flame down before adding the Fluxweed..." Slughorn said, prompting a slew of chuckles from the Slytherin end of the room. James clenched his fists, although under the table to keep them out of the view of his professor, and cleared his throat.

"Can I be excused, sir? Want to clean off and all that." He said, keeping his voice as steady as possible. Peter, the only other Marauder in this section of Potions, winced sympathetically as James tried to shove his things into his bag while getting the minimum amount of slime all over them and trudged back to Gryffindor dormitory, leaving his stained uniform in a pile at the foot of his bed before taking a quick shower to rid him of the worst of the grime before changing into a pair of sweatpants and a Gryffindor Quidditch t-shirt, not wanting to risk being caught in his underwear if someone came back into check in on him, and flopping into bed.

This morning couldn't have gone any worse, he mused, before he felt a weird tugging sensation behind his navel and the world went black.

* * *

 When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on the compartment floor of what looked to be the remains of a broken down train. The familiar scarlet interior pulled the Hogwarts Express to the front of his memory and he cursed under his breath, remembering that the Fluxweed monitored change between forms and, when screwed with, had a bad tendency to transport you places in time that you weren't supposed to be.

"Jay?" A voice called and he pushed himself up from the floor, thankful that his head had hit a ratty red and blue school bag that was lying on the floor rather than the floor itself. "Jay, you here?"

"Yeah." He croaked out, forcing himself to stand despite shaking legs, and picked up the bag, slipping his arm through one of the straps. Same hands, same too big feet, same black sweatpants and red and gold Gryffindor Quidditch t-shirt, and he caught sight of himself, or someone who looked incredibly like himself, in a plastic card on the compartment floor. 

"James S. Potter" was written opposite the name and James frowned in confusion, because the last time he'd checked, Charlus did not start with an S.

His hair was much shorter in the picture than he'd ever had it, barely an inch long at the most, and the windswept bangs that were integral to his fashion sense were hardly long enough to do anything at all, instead lying flat on his forehead. He ran a hand through his hair, relieved to find it mostly there due to unfortunate remainders of his pre-school haircut.

"Well, this is shit." He said, perhaps a little too loudly, as he turned back toward the doorway. 

And just in time too, for his rescuer had just reached the compartment herself.

"James Potter, what is  _up_  with you making everyone  _worry_  like that?" A short redhead said, hands on her hips as she stared him down. Familiar green eyes blazed with fury as she looked over James for injury before huffing and turning her back on him. "Come on out, then, everyone's worried as hell about you."

"Fine, I'm coming." He grumbled, rolling his eyes, and followed the girl out. "You don't have to be such a shit about it."

"Well, if you didn't have such an  _attitude_ , we wouldn't exactly have been looking for you for two hours." She opened the last door, which opened out onto the train tracks, and hopped down without a second thought. 

"Two hours?" James blinked in confusion. Surely it hadn't been that long, but then again, he'd been safe in his bed one minute and passed out on the train floor the next. "Really?"

"You okay there?" A boy with unruly black hair much closer to what James remembered on himself, in his early teens, rushed forward and the same green eyes as Lily rushed forward. "Jay?"

"Yeah, I'm alright." James frowned, nodding slowly. "Hey, quick question. What's today's date?"

"September first." The boy began cautiously, grabbing the girl's hand to drag her a little ways away from him.

"The year?" James shuffled his feet awkwardly, hoping he didn't look as nervous as he felt.

"2020." The boy said, frowning deeply, and James turned around, found a bush, and threw up his breakfast.

* * *

 The next few hours, until the Portkeys had arrived, were spent being coached on his details by the two kids he'd met earlier, who he now knew were named Al, for Albus Dumbledore, and Lily, for Lily Potter. The girl said this offhandedly, as if it were something everyone should know, and James' heart nearly stopped from the shock of it. He and Lily had gotten married. And had at least one child, who had children of his own. Damn.

"Your name?" Al asked, and James tapped his fingers on his knee for a minute before replying.

"James Sirius Potter."

"Age?" Lily prompted.

"Seventeen since July." He repeated, looking between them for confirmation.

"House?" Al looked at least slightly hopeful and James grimaced, searching for some sort of memory, before taking a wild guess.

"Gryffindor?"

Al and Lily shared a look of confusion before bursting into laughter.

"God no", Lily forced out, between laughs. "You're a Puff, James. Thought you were happy about that."

"I am?" James repeated, frowning slightly, and Al nudged her shoulder. "You're joking."

"Mate, your tie says it all." Al motioned to the tie looped around James' neck. "You were sorted into Hufflepuff years ago."

Lily looked him over again, her laughter freezing in her throat as her eyes met his.

"James", She began slowly, "what color are your eyes?"

"Hazel." James replied, on instinct, and she frowned, drawing her wand.

"What's your name?" Al drew his wand as he spoke, keeping a tight grip on it. "You a reporter? Do you think this is  _funny_?"

"My name is James Potter. I swear." James put his hands up. "My parents were Narayanan and Arya Potter, both of whom worked for the Ministry."

"Wait a second..." Lily put her wand down. "You're saying your name's James Potter."

"Yes."

"And your parents worked at the Ministry until '75."

"Yes."

"What year did you think it was when you got here?" Her eyes narrowed, much like his Lily's did when she was concentrating.

"It was 1978 when I woke up this morning." James replied smoothly, trying to gain back his confidence, and Al nearly choking on his spit didn't help.

"Merlin's beard." Al whispered, eyes widening as a slow smile spread across his face. "We've got ourselves the original James Potter. _Wicked_."

"And we've got to get him to act like Jay by the time we get to Hogwarts, or everything's sunk." Lily pointed out, rubbing her forehead. "Why can't we just have a normal year for once?"

"I blame Dad." Al groaned. "He sucks."

"Who's your dad?" James asked, frowning.

"We're gonna sit down and have a long talk about where your life went, Grandpa." Al grinned, slapping him on the shoulder as their last name was called. "For now, you're going back to Hogwarts."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Odd numbered chapters are going to be James Junior and evens are going to be James Senior, to make things easier to keep track of!


	3. Jay [2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Are you sure you're okay?" Lily frowned and Jay shrugged. "You've been acting oddly."
> 
> "Yeah, of course I've been acting oddly", Jay wanted to say. "I'm stuck nearly forty-five years in my past and I'm meeting the woman I've idolized all my life. Of course I'm acting oddly. As if that doesn't happen daily."
> 
> In true Potter fashion, instead of voicing his thoughts, he managed a halfhearted grunt accompanied by the awkward "avoiding the question you're asking" shuffle Jay had advised his father to patent on several occasions.

Jay quietly whistled to himself, an old habit, while checking the titles of books in the Hogwarts Library.

The library he remembers spending the vast majority of his days in was nearly twice the size of this one, although that may have been due to his father's guilt for never quite spending enough time there while he was in school and the rebuilding of Hogwarts going entirely lopsided, from the stories he'd heard. The castle looked different to him here, as it should, but in a way he didn't expect-- cleaner and newer, without that strange, acrid smell hiding in some of the stairwells and corners. Jay knows, like all the other children of the generation torn by war do, that that particular smell only comes about from being touched by something Dark. 

Jay, in particular, grew up with that smell lingering just under all the others, a constant that grew familiar enough to be passed off as white noise, and never took a second to wonder why his father always smelled like fire gone wrong. Of course, he discovered later that not all people were used to this, wondered why the smell grew thicker as he approached the seventh floor corridor in his time, stopping right under the tapestry next to which Freddie had carved Long Live Fred Weasley into the wall on their first night.

"That's how you know Death's come by", his mother had said, when he wrote home for answers. "When it smells like everything happy's burned away and you're all that's left."

This Hogwarts was nothing like that, and he smiled as he dragged his thumb along the spines of books, thinking that this might have been a nicer place to grow up in than what he'd left.

"Fancy seeing you in here." Lily Evans said, having snuck upon him, and Jay immediately ran into the bookshelf in his attempt to get out of the aisle. 

"Well, uh, hey." He turned around, deciding that having this conversation sooner than later was for the best. "I'm here, so."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Lily frowned and Jay shrugged. "You've been acting oddly."

"Yeah, of course I've been acting oddly", Jay wanted to say. "I'm stuck nearly forty-five years in my past and I'm meeting the woman I've idolized all my life. Of course I'm acting oddly. As if that doesn't happen daily."

In true Potter fashion, instead of voicing his thoughts, he managed a halfhearted grunt accompanied by the awkward "avoiding the question you're asking" shuffle Jay had advised his father to patent on several occasions.

"James, we have to talk eventually." Lily frowned. Jay winced, having seen that look on his brother's face enough times to know it was no good. "If you're going to avoid me like the plague, at least break up with me properly first."

"Oh." Jay said, slapping his forehead as it finally occurred to him. "We're _dating_."

He'd never quite learned the full story of his grandparents' courtship, as not many people who had known them at the time were alive to tell it, and he'd only learned vague details of their lives before the war from Grandma Minnie and Dad. But them dating during school would have definitely made sense, considering they married so soon after graduation. And here he'd thought pretending to have a crush was going to be his biggest problem.

"I was pretty sure we were until you said it like that, yes." Lily's eyes narrowed.

"Uh, wait, what year is it? '78?" Lily nodded slowly, answering Jay's question. "I'm not the James you're looking for. If that reference makes sense yet." The phrase prompted a smile from Lily and Jay grinned back, deciding that was a pretty safe thing to do. "Sorry, my dad's a bit hung up on that movie. Lightsabers and all that. I'm _a_ James, but I'm not _your_ James. Does that explain anything?"

"Not exactly." Lily eyed the titles of the books he had in his arms cautiously, recognizing that the common element between them was the manipulation of time by magic. "So you're James from the future, then?"

"Close enough." Jay shrugged. "But still not exactly."

"Do they ever make a sequel to Star Wars, then?" 

"We should find chairs." Jay sighed, grabbing a couple books off the shelf before finding an empty table in a corner. "This is going to take awhile."

* * *

 "Don't you think it's  _odd_ ", Remus said while pulling his socks off, "that there's just coincidentally this kid that looks almost exactly like James, who won't tell us where he's from or why he's here?"

"Maybe James has a cousin." Peter shrugged, fiddling with his quill as he tried to find the right word for his Transfiguration essay. "Or a twin he never told us about."

"It's  _obviously_ time travel." Sirius rolled his eyes, scoffing. "What  _else_ could be the cause, here? There's a new James, who answers to James too naturally for it not to be his name, and looks at us all like we're museum pieces. He's from the future. It's the only thing that makes everything line up. D'you think he can tell me who wins the Cup, this year?"

"Sirius, don't be  _ridiculous_." Remus groaned, throwing his sock at Sirius. It was exactly on target, hitting him square in the face, and Peter stifled a giggle. "It's not time travel."

"Put your money where your mouth is, Moony mine." Sirius winked, throwing the sock back, although it missed Remus' head by a good half a foot to land by the door. "I get the Map on your weeks too for the next two months if it is."

"Deal." Remus nodded. "It's only ever time travel on the telly, Sirius."

"Two wizards switched places just like this in 1793 and the new guy sold out Louis the Sixteenth. The old one was executed too, when he turned up saying that he couldn't remember anything that happened. An Armand Delacour, I think." Sirius grinned, nudging Remus with his foot. This was quite possibly the first time he'd been thankful for the ability to stay awake in History of Magic, something his friends definitely lacked. "Pay up, babe."

"We'll ask him, then. He'll have to tell us." Remus said resolutely, just as the door opened, revealing Jay, with a worried looking Lily just behind him.

"Listen, we have to talk. It's important." Jay forced out, looking around the room. Peter stiffened and Jay frowned, wondering what exactly the boy was afraid of, before he stood. 

"I should, uh, probably go, then?" Peter motioned to the door, and Jay shrugged. 

"Stick around, Peter. You've got as big a stake in this as the rest of us." Jay sat down on his bed, Lily leaving a fair bit of space between them before doing the same. Peter gleefully pulled his desk chair over, balancing his elbows on his knees before resting his face in his palms.

"So, James, what are you into this time?" Sirius asked, propping himself up on his elbows rather than lying on his bed, which he'd been doing for the past hour or so. "Drugs? Girls? Dangerous creatures?"

"Time travel."

Remus silently reached into his book bag, pulling out the map, and handed it to Sirius without a word, prompting a round of laughter from both Sirius and Peter.

"This is a serious topic, boys." Lily frowned, and Jay did his best to keep from laughing before giving up, joining the rest of the boys in their mirth.

"I'm a little more than a third serious, actually." Jay croaked out, trying his best to keep calm. "Honest."

"How so?" Remus asked, clearly intrigued.

"Well, for starters, my father thought naming me James Sirius Potter was an excellent idea." Jay scratched his head, pulling a face they'd all seen on James before. "And I'd say that puts me at about thirty-five percent, about."

" _Please_ tell me you're joking." Sirius' eyes widened. "James would never."

Jay sighed, expression dulling a little. "Well, that's the thing. James _didn't_."


	4. James [2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I bet I'm horrible looking old, though." James snorted. "What am I, sixty?"
> 
> "No." Lily said, turning back to face James with an unreadable expression on her face. "You're twenty-one."

James and the two younger Potter siblings appeared in mid air, still clutching the dented brass teakettle they'd been given a few minutes before, and landed in a heap of tangled limbs in the courtyard of Hogwarts. James was the first to stand, having had years of experience with Portkeys, and looked around the courtyard of the school that was so familiar and yet so different at the same time. 

"It looks..." James struggled for the right words, before settling on something simple. "Weird."

"After the war, they had to rebuild most of it, really. Place got trashed in the final battle." Al shrugged, looking around the courtyard as if searching for someone. Whoever he was looking for, he didn't find, and he seemed more than a little torn up about it. "So if it looks different from what you remember, that's probably why."

"The war? But that would have been... what, forty years ago for you?" James frowned, wondering how long the world had been in Voldemort's clutches, before Al shook his head. 

"The First War, the one you were in, ended about forty years ago. The Second, which is when the castle went down, was twenty? Almost?" Al scratched his head. "I think. I'm not aces at numbers. That's James' thing, more often than not. Our James, I mean, not you."

"No harm done." James shrugged. He'd never been the best at Arithmancy anyhow, and had mostly taken it because Professor McGonagall had said it would make later Transfiguration concepts easier to understand. "What's your James like, anyway? Sounds like an alright bloke. Good with numbers and a responsible big brother and whatnot."

"He's a giant nerd." Lily spoke up, brushing the dust off her clothes. "Spends all his time doing extra work for professors in the library, if he's not lumbering around, muttering about rulebreakers. Did you know he works at the library?"

"First a Hufflepuff and then a library nerd?" James blinked in shock, not all of it fake. "Whatever's happened to us Potters?"

"Lils and I are keeping the legacy alive, don't worry." Al snorted, rolling his eyes, before motioning at his sister with a grin on his face. "This little lady here's the best Seeker in nearly a century and a quarter."

"Dad was horrified that I'd stolen a Quidditch record right out from between his fingers. Almost cried, I think." Lily smirked.

"Almost?" Al chuckled before pouting dramatically and rubbing at his eyes, sniffling a few times for effect. "Definitely. 'Look at my kids, all grown up and achieving things' or some sentimental tripe."

"Your dad sounds ridiculous." James remarked. All he knew about their father (his  _son_ , with  _Lily Evans_ , no, Lily  _Potter_ ) was that he apparently cried a lot, had played Seeker for Gryffindor while at school and had fought in the Second War these kids kept mentioning. Had Voldemort been defeated? Had he come back from the dead afterward? James rolled his eyes. He wouldn't put it past the old bastard, from what he'd heard from his Uncle Alastor, a colleague of his father's, who usually got very mad when James referred to him as Uncle Alastor. "He gets that from his Uncle Sirius though, I bet. And me. But only a little bit."

"Does he?" Al asked, brightening up at the mention of new information. Al was a bit of a genealogy enthusiast, having made his older brother read all of the books about the First and Second Wizarding Wars in entertaining voices in order to get some sense of who his family had been. For all Al enjoyed searching out information, he was not too fond of the actual reading part. That he left to Jay or Rose, who were more often than not willing to do it anyway. "That's cool to hear."

"I bet I'm horrible looking old, though." James snorted, kicking a stray rock aside. It ricocheted against the cracked base of one of the stone pillars, shooting off into some shadowy corner, and he sighed. "What am I, sixty?"

Al fell silent, staring off at the birds circling above rather than providing an answer, and James frowned in confusion.

"No." Lily said, after a minute's silence, turning back to face James with an unreadable expression on her face. She looked away immediately after their eyes met, as if scared to reply at all, and shoved her hands deeper into the pockets of the worn leather jacket she was wearing, obviously not hers by how large it was on her. It was far too big to be Al's either, James noted, because the boy had the build of a particularly flimsy chopstick. "You're twenty-one."

"Twenty-one?" James frowned. "But that  _can't_ be right. See, it's what, 2020 now and I was born in 1960, so I have to be at least sixty."

"Think about it for a minute." Al cut in, softly, shooting an apologetic look James' way. There was something hard in his green eyes that James recognized from years of watching Lily's, something that spoke of a reluctance to grow old despite there being too many empty pairs of shoes to fill, and it clicked. These kids had never met him before today, because he'd been dead since before they were born. "There's really only a few ways you could be twenty-one for forty years."

" _Please_ tell me I'm a vampire." James exhaled hard, prompting a weak chuckle from Al, who was clearly only humoring him. "Well, that's certainly not the _best_ news I've had today."

"We just told you you're _dead_ and you're taking it in stride just like that?" Lily eyed him carefully, eyebrows furrowed.

"Back where I come from", James began, smiling tiredly, "there's a war still on. People you know die every day. After awhile, you stop worrying too much about yourself."

Lily turned on her heel and stalked off into the school, head down and Al stared after her, stunned.

"You know, she's not usually like this at all." He remarked, casually, as he started walking after her, James close behind. "She's usually a barrel of sunshine and laughs, when she's not pulling pranks on whoever's unfortunate enough to get in her way, but... I guess not knowing if he's okay or not is wearing on her."

"Missing people tends to do that to you." James said, as they pushed past the front doors, and they walked the rest of the way to the Great Hall shrouded in silence.


	5. Jay [3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay frowned for a second, trying to think about how best to phrase it, before deciding telling the truth was as good a choice as any.
> 
> "That's the thing. I've never met any of you before now." Jay paused afterward, waiting for it to sink in. "Not a single one of the people in the room, myself excluded, makes it to forty, the way things are about to play out."

"What do you mean, James didn't?" Sirius leaned in, curiosity piqued, and Jay frowned for a second, trying to think about how best to phrase it, before deciding telling the truth was as good a choice as any.

"That's the thing. I've never met any of you before now." Jay paused afterward, waiting for it to sink in. "Not a single one of the people in the room, myself excluded, makes it to forty, the way things are about to play out."

"All of us are dead, then. Where you come from." Remus said, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, and Jay knew, finally, where Teddy had gotten that face from. "In what year?"

"2020. We've been Voldemort free for about twenty-two years, now." Jay tapped his fingers against his thigh. "People are dying, here, and me being here is going to change things. I can make sure that it's for the better if all four of you know what's going to happen."

"Then what's going to happen?" Peter spoke up, voice wavering.

"Voldemort falls on Halloween 1981, thanks to James and Lily's sacrifices. Sirius is arrested for their betrayal and murder, as they were under the Fidelius Charm and he seemed to be the most logical choice as Secret Keeper. But no one bothers checking if it actually was Sirius or not, which they should've because James refused to pick Sirius for the reason that it'd be too easy. Peter and Remus disappear off the map after that until September of 1993, when Remus returns to Hogwarts for a year as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Jay looked especially serious when speaking of his grandfather, and seemed to grow quieter as he told of later events. "The Second War started in June of '95, and my father, Harry Potter, then went on to defeat Voldemort a second time in May of 1998. Thankfully, he did the job all the way, so things have been pretty quiet since then."

"Their Secret Keeper _sold them out_?" Sirius raged, standing up. His fists were shaking with fury and Remus thankfully restrained him, pulling his back into a sitting position. "Who is it? I'll kill them now!"

"They never told us who it was, only that it was someone they trusted." Jay swallowed. "Sorry, I'm trying to call up years of History of Magic notes, and we all know how that class works." 

"Somebody's gonna hurt James? And Lily?" Peter, who was hunched over in his chair, cringed further. "Can we stop them now?"

"Things should go fine as long as the five of you have each other's backs." Jay shot a weak grin in Peter's direction, hoping to calm him down a little. It worked, seemingly, as Peter scooted a little further back in his chair instead of teetering on the very edge, looking at least minutely closer to calm. "Stick together, and all that."

"But you can't tell us who the person who betrayed us is, so we can't have our backs if we don't know who we're fighting against." Lily pointed out, frowning slightly. 

"I can honestly tell you that no one in this room right now, other than you, was _directly_ involved in the events of Halloween 1981." Jay looked at each person individually. "That was entirely between you, James, my dad and Voldemort. But someone is going to try and pull the five of you apart, and very soon. If you can stand up to that and keep each other safe, no one has to die."

Peter heaved a sigh of relief and Remus nodded, lacing and unlacing his fingers together. "Well, that's good."

"Yeah." Jay smiled. "That is. Regardless, as long as the four of you and James keep together and no one does anything particularly reckless, things should be fine and dandy."

"So, in terms of more important things, do I end up with someone hot?" Sirius piped up after a rather charged pause, hoping to break the silence. 

"No, but Remus does." Jay winked, looking very much like the first James for a second, and Sirius nearly howled in disappointment as Remus nodded, smirking.

* * *

 

Lily stirred the potion before her as Jay methodically cut the herbs into evenly sized pieces. They'd hardly said a word to each other since Jay had filled them in on what was to come and how it could be avoided, and he figured he wouldn't want to talk to the person who told him about his future death either. It seemed like a reasonable choice, really.

"What's he like?" She asked, suddenly looking over to him, and he nearly missed the daisy root he was chopping, almost nicking his finger. 

"Who?" Jay blinked in surprise before going back to cutting the root.

"My son." She stirred it three times clockwise and looked over at the open book beside her before stirring it three more times counter-clockwise. "Harry, you said."

"Oh, him." Jay rolled his eyes jokingly. "He's alright. Thinks he's a lot funnier than he is, really, which is a chore to listen to sometimes. There's only so many times you can laugh at the same stag pun, really." That prompted a soft chuckle from Lily and Jay continued, taking that as a sign of approval. "Likes old movies and hanging out with friends. Kinda odd to describe your dad to people, to be honest."

"I can understand that." She nodded, holding out her hand for the daisy root, and Jay scooped it up neatly before dropping the pieces in her outstretched palm. "Hopefully I'll get a chance to know him, now."

"Cut the hopefullys, I say, and go straight to definitely." James said, quoting the message Uncle Ron had scrawled in the first letter he'd gotten at Hogwarts, and Lily paused for a moment. 

"You know, you're a lot more like James than you think you are." She said, deftly dropping the chopped pieces in before preparing the next set of ingredients in. The potion bubbled slightly, shifting color from a soft yellow to a dark green, and she noted the change in the margin. "Don't know if anyone's told you that."

"Grandma Minnie, err, Professor McGonagall to you, I guess, says I'm most like you, actually." Jay got to work trying to squeeze as much juice out of the strangely colored beans before him as he could. "Lily, my little sister, is a lot more like him, in her opinion. She's got a group much like the boys upstairs. They're a terror, those girls, but I at least try to keep them in line. God knows what a mess it'll be, when I leave next year."

"Is it just you and Lily?" She asked, curious. "Or do you have any more siblings?"

"There's me, then Al, then Lily." He smiled just barely, when talking about his siblings, and Lily took note of that. "Al's a right tosser sometimes, but he's the one you want to have your back, in a fight. Not that I get into too many of those. That's Lily's thing."

"James, Sirius and Lily, huh?" She moved back slightly as James poured the juice he'd collected in. "He was going for nostalgia points, then?"

"A little bit, I think. It's even more of a joke, considering Lily and I resemble you and James way too much for it to have been at random." Jay shrugged. "He never really got a chance to know you either, so I think he just kind of decided we were going to be the James and Lily he missed out on, you know? Keeps trying to get me into pranks and get Lily to tone it down a little and maybe crack open a book or two, but he's not getting anywhere with either of us."

"He means well, I'd say." Lily sighed, turning down the flames just slightly, before pulling two chairs over with a flick of her wand. James nodded his thanks before sitting down in the one closest to him. "If-- If I lost everyone like that, I'd probably try to bring them back too. That doesn't mean that you have to do what he wants, though. That's the whole reason we're fighting this war, isn't it? So that everyone can just _be_. Doesn't seem like the sort of thing you should have to fight for, but here we are."

"I get what he was going for, I really do", Jay began, unsure, "but making us into what you and Grandpa James were isn't going to solve anything. It's only going to send us in circles again and again. History tends to repeat."

Lily barely stifled a laugh and Jay looked over, confused. "It's just  _weird_ , hearing someone call my seventeen year old boyfriend 'Grandpa'."

"Well, considering that I'm your seventeen year old grandson, I feel like I have the right." Jay chuckled, shaking his head, and looked up at the sight of the shimmering blue vapor that signaled the end of the potion's brew time appearing above the heavy pewter cauldron. "You do realize that, uh, if this all works out, I won't remember you, the next time we meet. Cause I'll be a newborn baby, and all that."

"I'm glad to have met you as you are, then. Hopefully the you that I'll meet grows up to be half as good." Lily reached over cautiously, mussing up Jay's hair, and he grinned, looking dangerously close to tears. She then enveloped him in the tightest hug he'd gotten to date, counting all of his mother's, and he hunched down awkwardly, due to the height difference, to reciprocate, ending up with his forehead awkwardly placed on her shoulder. "It'll be alright. You made the right choice."

"Thanks, I-- I really needed to hear that." He heaved a sigh, trying to settle out his emotions.

"I know", she replied, nodding. "I do sometimes too."

"So..." He said, stepping back suddenly, rubbing at his elbows in the way James sometimes did when he was feeling out of place. "I just... drink this, and it should take me back, then?"

"Say where, or when, really, you want to go and it'll take you." She dipped the ladle she had been stirring with into the potion, pouring a small amount of it into a flask before handing it to Jay. "It was nice to meet you. The boys feel the same way."

Jay gratefully took the flask from Lily, swilling the liquid about before looking to her one last time. "He has your eyes, you know. My dad."

"I'm glad to hear it", she said, not knowing exactly what to say, and stood in silence as he announced that he'd like to go to September 4th, 2020 to the dungeon walls before drinking the potion down.

Nearly a minute later, he seemed to nearly melt out of existence, and Lily was left with no proof that he'd even existed.

Now, she supposed, as she saved the rest of the potion and scrubbed the cauldron and equipment she'd used, it was only a matter of time until her James got back, and then the hard part would really begin.

 


	6. James [3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hello there, Other James." James stuck out his hand to shake as his grandson approached him and Jay nodded, shaking his hand enthusiastically. "You know, you do look weirdly like me."
> 
> "Well, that's how genetics works." Jay shrugged, scratching his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is going to be the last of this fic. I feel like ending it at seven is a good thing. Family tradition.

Lily was thankful that it was a common sight for Jay to eat breakfast at the Gryffindor table, because James had plodded over to the Gryffindor table on instinct for the last few days when he entered the Hall, rather than at least cursorily going to Hufflepuff table to greet his housemates first. She picked at her cereal as he sat down on her left side, looking worn out despite the fact that he'd turned in quite early the night before, and moved just barely aside to give him a little more room.

"Rough night, Jim?" Al asked, mouth mostly full of toast, reaching around Lily to slap James' back in greeting. "You look a little peaky."

"My roommates are loud little buggers." James shook his head, heaving a sigh. "And I've lived with Sirius Black before."

Thankfully, no one at the Gryffindor table, save for Cory Malfoy, was very fond of eavesdropping on other peoples' conversations, and Cory had not shown up to breakfast today, so the slip up went unnoticed.

"Davies is a little tough to deal with, even on anyone's best day." Al snorted, grinning. "Nott's not all too bad, really. Could use a little more backbone, but he's an alright guy."

"He's alright." James agreed, piling his plate with toast. "Quiet as hell, though. Kind of scary."

A familiar barn owl swooped in through the window, followed by the rest of the students' owls, and Lily kept her eyes trained on it as it flew straight to the Gryffindor table, landing neatly right next to her goblet before dropping a dirty scrap of paper and flying off after nuzzling Lily's shoulder.

"That's Wol with the mail, then." Lily smoothed the scrap of paper out, James and Al leaning in from either side to see what the message was, before reading the contents aloud in a soft whisper. "Hiding in the Room of Requirement. Bring James and I'll send him back. Keep your noses clean. Love, Jay."

"So am I finally going to meet the elusive James Junior, then?" James asked, stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth just as Al did, with no regard for how much food could fit in his mouth at once. 

"Seems like it." Al said, standing up before stretching his arms and yawning. "Well, if we run, we'll only miss a class."

"A whole class?" James frowned. "What're you expecting that'll take that long?"

Lily sighed, abandoning all pretenses of ignoring her brother and grandfather. "You've never been on the wrong side of a Jay Lecture."

"Is there really a right side, though, if you aren't him?" Al grimaced, muttering something about Jay not being his mother, as he lead the way out of the Great Hall. Lily and James, looking equally disgruntled, followed behind, both dreading what was to come for different reasons.

* * *

 

Al ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time, as was his habit, and they reached the seventh floor soon enough. Al seemed to quicken his pace further as he passed the tapestry depicting a wizard teaching trolls ballet, reaching the blank swath of wall beyond it.

"I'd like to find Jay Potter." Al said, under his breath, pacing back and forth along the blank section of wall three times, and, suddenly, a wrought iron door appeared in what had previously been an unmarked stone wall. "There we go. All in, everyone."

"What is this?" James asked, looking around. He and his friends had found all sorts of secret passages around the castle, during the making of the map, but never this one. But where would a passage on the highest floor of the castle lead to, he wondered. Straight into the air, perhaps? Or into the pipes?

"This little miracle is the Room of Requirement." Lily spoke up. "You only really find it if you need it. Can't be found on the Map, if that's what you were thinking about."

She strode forward, throwing the door open, and James and Al followed her inside. Al grinned once he noticed his older brother in the corner, seemingly unharmed, and looked ten times more relieved once he'd ascertained that Jay was unharmed.

"Well, looks like you got here safely enough." Jay spoke up from where he was brewing the same potion he had helped his grandmother make only hours before. "Everyone's in the right amount of pieces? Yes?"

Lily moved to approach him, before deciding otherwise and hanging back, leaning on the wall by the door instead, tugging the sleeves of his jacket down over her hands. She'd had it since the day after his father had gotten it for him, having stolen it out of the laundry basket and refused to give it back, and Jay hadn't protested mainly because protesting against Lily was the sort of thing that got you in deep, deep trouble. He shot a smile in her direction, knowing from years of experience what she meant, and walked over to greet them properly.

"Hello there, Other James." James stuck out his hand to shake as his grandson approached him and Jay nodded, shaking his hand enthusiastically. "You know, you _do_ look weirdly like me."

"Well, that's how genetics works." Jay shrugged, scratching his head, and barely managed to release James' hand and step back before Al barreled into him, sending them both toppling to the floor. Al had ended up far more solidly built than his tall and willowy older brother, mostly due to his enthusiastic embracing of being taken on as a Beater when he'd first tried out for Quidditch at school, and often underestimated his strength. "Right, right, we've got to send Grandpa back before we get too involved in tackling each other."

"How did you get back here? From... wherever you got stuck?" James asked, frowning as he looked around the room. He couldn't see a single time turner in sight, but perhaps the potion had something to do with it. That's a riot, James thought as he rolled his eyes. A Potter who's good at Potions. If that didn't have Lily's influence all over it, he didn't know what did.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jay chuckled, shaking his head. "Lily did the work, really."

"Both of them." James added, looking to Lily, who scowled in his direction. 

Jay conjured a flask before ladling the potion into it, screwing the cap on tightly before tossing it over his shoulder to James, who easily caught it. 

"Should send you back, if you announce what moment in time you want to go back to. I left on the morning of September fourth, so go back then if you don't want to start a nationwide James shortage, or something." James grinned, nodding, before following the instructions, gulping the potion down after announcing the date.

"See you nerds in another forty years, yeah?" James said, before disappearing.

"Yeah. Let's hope." Lily said, to the empty space where her grandfather had been.

* * *

 

James cornered Lily after their classes had gotten out for the day, thankful that Jay had at least done his homework while he was here, and immediately grabbed her hand, squeezing it tight. "We get  _married_. Holy  _crap_."

"Yeah." Lily said, smiling as she shook her head. "It makes sense, but it's still..."

"Weird?" James offered, nodding. "Pretty weird. I mean, we have  _grandkids_ in another forty years. That's scarier than Sirius on oatmeal day."

"Just a little bit." She swung their clasped hands back and forth, eyebrows furrowing suddenly, as if she were debating whether to let him in on a secret or not. 

"What's wrong?" He nudged her arm with his elbow, and she shrugged.

"Nothing. Just wondering about all the cleaning up after you I'll have to do." She heaved a sigh. "Considering the future's confirmed that we're stuck together forever, and all."

"I'd be worried too, really." He chuckled, coaxing a laugh out of her. "That's why I've got you to help."

"Always." She squeezed his hand.

"Forever." He squeezed back.


	7. Jay and James [1]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Well", James thought, as he awoke, contorted awkwardly in a wooden waiting room chair, "things could be worse."

"Well", James thought, as he awoke, contorted awkwardly in a wooden waiting room chair, "things could be worse."

He didn't realize he'd said that aloud until Lily hummed in agreement, having stayed awake the entire time. It seemed that their grandson, much like his legion of grandfathers, was very much fond of dramatic entrances. And he'd chosen the right day to do it, Lily mused, even if he had been a little too early for anyone's liking. "Shouldn't say that about your grandson, though."

"We shouldn't, you mean." James snorted before groaning as he stretched, settling into a more comfortable position."You were agreeing."

"You'll be less inclined to say that once you find out what they've named him." Remus, carrying a still sleepy Teddy, whose hair was flickering between blue and green, entered the room. "Horrendous."

"Horrendous, you say?" James smirked, shaking his head. None of them had forgotten the boy from a little over thirty years ago, and how could they, when everything had turned out so much better than it could have been. "Come on, now, Harry wouldn't make  _that_ bad a decision, not with my perfect parenting to back him up."

"Would be great if you guys, you know, didn't talk about me like I was still six." Harry strode into the room, looking even more disheveled than usual, and motioned for the adults and Teddy to follow. "He's up and so's Ginny, so I'd say it's time to get acquainted, isn't it?"

"I guess it is." James was the first to start forward, fingers laced through Lily's as always, as they followed Harry down the hall and into the small room at the end. 

Ginny smiled tiredly, planting a kiss on the forehead of the tiny baby in her arms. The softly crying child, much smaller than he should be, thanks to his early birth, quieted at the feel of his mother's lips on his skin, squeezing his eyes shut before carefully opening them. They shone bright brown in the sun, much like his skin, and Lily smiled, reaching over to softly ruffle her grandson's hair. He cooed, shifting his head towards her hand just slightly, and Ginny chuckled. "We've got a social little boy, looks like."

"I wanna see!" Teddy crowed, disentangling himself from his father and nearly sliding out of his arms in an effort to get to the baby before anyone else. "What's his name? He's pretty. Can I keep him?"

"One question at a time, Ted." Harry grinned, sitting down on the edge of the bed at Ginny's side. "His name's James, and you can't keep him 'cause Ron and Hermione have first dibs."

"James like Uncle James?" He looked to James and Lily before shrugging and leaning in closer to the baby, who seemed mesmerized by the changing colors of Teddy's hair. "That's super cool. I'm Teddy like my Grandpa Teddy, just like you're James like your Grandpa James."

"James Sirius Potter." James sighed, shaking his head. "This one's going to be a menace. I can feel it."

"How'd you know we were going with Sirius?" Harry asked, confused. "I didn't think we'd told anyone."

"Call it a lucky guess." Lily spoke up, winking at her husband. "Maybe your father's finally growing an intuition."

"It's about forty years late, if I am." James grumbled, rolling his eyes. 

Harry groaned, shaking his head at the familiar sight of his parents taking digs at each other, and busied himself with staring at his son, like most new parents do. Two wars and a strained reconstruction period later, here they were, at a new beginning. And this little James would hopefully grow up and live out his life in peacetime, Harry thought, and if he didn't, well, he'd have the best family in the world to back him up.

"Well, Mum, in case you're bored without a baby in the house, we got you one." Harry chuckled. "Forgot to wrap him, though."

"I don't need a baby named James, love." Lily shook her head. "You see, I've already got one."

"Cut it out!" James scrunched up his nose in annoyance, noticing out of the corner of his eye that his grandson had just made the same face. "Look at him! Copying me! The audacity!"

"Not 'zactly the same, I mean, cause he's James Sirius Potter and you're Just James Potter." Teddy pointed out, having climbed onto the bed to sit in Harry's lap while the adults were otherwise distracted. "So he's at least a little bit different."

"Here's to hoping he's at least a little serious." Harry said, trying to keep his face straight. "We need a black sheep about now."

"You got Sirius and Black in there, you little genius." James put a hand over his heart, smiling wide. "I helped raise a genius, Lil."

"I did most of it, if you don't remember."

"Hey, hey, enough." Harry waved his arms around. "I know babies don't remember anything until they're four, or something, but let's have his grandparents hold him and not be taking cheap shots, yeah?"

"He's got to learn the family way somehow, Harry." James said, looking as serious as possible when Harry passed the baby from Ginny to Lily. "The weenies don't make it too long in the Potter family."

The younger James yawned, resting his head against Lily's chest before eagerly looking around at what was hardly a small fraction of the Potters, who were nothing when compared to the Weasleys, in numbers of people.

"Well, at least he's pretty." James shrugged, earning a harried look from Remus. "It's 'cause he looks like me, to clarify."

"He does." Ginny piped up. "Except he's got my eyes, really."

"Somebody up there's just trying to leave all the building blocks of an annoying childhood out for this kid." Harry shuddered. "I hope they step on Jenga blocks in the dark."

"Well, he's got us to offset that, so there's a plus." James piped up, reaching out to ruffle his grandson's hair. "Should make things easier."

"Definitely." Remus added, as Teddy rolled off the bed to run to James, begging to be picked up so that he could play with the baby again. "Everything should be a lot easier, with all of us around."

"Agreed." Harry and Ginny chorused, incredulously looking at each other afterward, and Lily gently rocked the baby in her arms.

"Thank you." She whispered, in his tiny ear, and little James Sirius seemed to rest just a bit easier for it.


End file.
